Unmanned vehicles (UVs) such as aerial vehicles (e.g., Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones), land vehicles, or even collaborative robots are typically operated without a human aboard. UVs may include three types of platforms based on their ability to control their operation. For example, UVs may be categorized as remote controlled (RC), task following, and semi to fully autonomous.
RC platform based UVs typically do not include the capability to control the UV behavior, and rely on an external operator to perform tasks. For example, a RC platform based UV may be instructed by an operator who has a line-of-sight to the UV to implement every behavior change, and to guide the UV through each task that is to be performed.
A task following platform based UV may include the ability to receive instructions on how to perform a task, and then repeat the task until receiving instructions to stop performing the task, or based on the occurrence of an exception that the UV has been preprogrammed to respond to. An operator for a task following platform based UV may monitor the status of the UV, and then report the results of the task following platform based UV's execution. Task following platform based UVs may be operated without a line-of-sight to the UV, even when the UV is being manually controlled by an operator. For example, a video camera mounted on the UV and a wireless video link (e.g., a “first-person-view”, or FPV) may allow an operator to control the UV without line of site.
A semi or fully autonomous platform (e.g., “smart platform”) based UV may receive instructions related to a task. Based on access to real-time sensor data on the UV and a set of objectives that are specified by the instructions, the semi or fully autonomous platform based UV may be deployed to follow the instructions.